“If he comes through,” Steve said.

A sound of a toilet flushing in the background drifted into the living room from Connie’s open bedroom door. Curt’s brow furrowed. “Did I just hear a goddamned toilet?”

“It’s a toilet all right,” Steve said. “But I’m not sure where it’s coming from. These houses are so damn close, maybe it’s coming from next door.”

Yuri returned to the living room clutching a triangle of three tumblers each half-filled with ice-cold vodka. “I got good news for you guys,” he said as he deposited the glasses on the coffee table then handed them out.

“We just heard a toilet,” Curt said. He took the drink. “It sounded like it might have come from this house.”

“Probably,” Yuri said with a disgusted shrug. “My wife, Connie, is in the other room.”

Curt and Steve exchanged an anxious glance.

“The reason I stopped by the firehouse...” Yuri began.

“Wait a second!” Curt interrupted. “You never said you were married.”

“Why should I have?” Yuri said. He looked from Steve to

Curt. He could tell they were as uneasy about his marital status as they were about his visiting the firehouse.

“You told us you were alone,” Curt said irritably. “You said you didn’t have any friends.”

“That’s true,” Yuri said. “I am alone, without friends.”

“Yet you have a wife in the other room,” Curt said. He looked at Steve, who rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“There’s an expression in English,” Yuri said, “about ships passing in the night. We have the same expression in Russian. That’s me and Connie: two ships in the night. We never talk. Hell, we rarely even see each other.”

Curt rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his temples. He couldn’t believe he was learning all this now, not after all their planning. It gave him a headache.

“Do you think your wife can hear what we’re saying out here?” Steve questioned.

“I doubt it,” Yuri said. “Besides, she couldn’t care less what we’re saying. She just eats and watches television.”

“I don’t hear a television,” Steve said.

“Yeah, because I just broke it,” Yuri said. “It was driving me crazy. All that fake laughter suggesting life here in America is so funny and wonderful.”

“Maybe you should at least close the door,” Curt said through clenched teeth.

“All right, sure,” Yuri said. He went to the door.

“Now maybe you understand what I’ve been talking about,” Steve whispered. “I’m telling you, this guy is a kook!”

“Shut up,” Curt responded.

Yuri returned to his chair and took a slug from his vodka.

“Does your wife know what you did for a living in the Soviet Union?” Curt demanded in a lowered voice. He was afraid to hear the answer and winced when Yuri responded in the affirmative.